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Chemistry question here. I wanted to play around with some nickel plating, and I started to follow a popular recipe that I saw on YouTube. It started with Nickel II Oxide, placed in a malt vinegar for a week to create a solution of Nickel Acetate that you could then use as a bath to plate things with Nickel. I purchased 100 grams of 99% grade Nickel II Oxide, and let it sit in 2L of vinegar for a long time. After 2 weeks there's no hint of the emerald green Nickel Acetate. So I purchased some glacial Acetic Acid, and added it to a liter of distilled water to make a 50% weight solution of Acetic Acid to make a stronger solution, and still a week later nothing green. Solution is in a clean glass vessel.

A local chemist at work said it would be slow, but man, this is taking forever. What am I doing wrong, or what could I do different?

I know Ni Acetate can be achieved with pure nickel and electricity in vinegar, but I really want to try to convert the nickel oxide.